Wednesday travel day update .....
Really liked and enjoyed Charlevoix. Very clean and tidy. Easily walkable town. Wife and I walked and admired several of The Mushroom Houses. Said to all have been designed by the same architect about a century ago. Must be about 30 of them scattered around town. Private residential units still occupied.
Community band/orchestra concert in the bandshell Park area adjacent to the marina last night. It is one of several events we have just stumbled into on our Loop.
Our departure time this morning was dictated by two factors....enough light...and the Charlevoix bridge schedule. The marina in Charlevoix is on Round Lake. There is a busy roadway into Charlevoix over the canal which connects Lake Michigan to Round Lake. The bridge only opens 3 minutes at the top of the hour and 3 minutes at the half hour. Bridge clearance closed is listed as 11 to 15 depending upon the source. As configured currently we need about 18.5 feet so had to have an opening.
Sunrise is about 630 anyway so we awoke 5:45 ish and had coffee, made engine fluid checks, arranged lines and stowed things for an open water crossing of Traverse Bay. Slipped lines about 6:20....idled out of marina and to the channel near the bridge with nav lights on. One other Loop boat was already there about 2 mins ahead of us....short wait...and up go the drawbridge leaves.
Passed under and into the short canal leading out into Lake Michigan.
I could tell right away the swells from yesterday and last night had NOT settled down completely. We immediately began a rhythmic hobby horse motion as we transited the canal.
The wind forecast would suggest an early southwest wind followed by a shift to the west. My hope was it would hold up as correct. That would mean we would be in the lee early as we headed straight west rounding land before we headed down bay and would again have protection from land to our west as we headed south. Nope.
Wind was fairly fresh out of the southeast as we left the breakwater. Some seas were already building and that meant the wind woul be raking upwards the whole length of Traverse Bay. Yep. Sure enough we began to see whitecaps and twos building to 3's.
Turned south into Traverse and kinda plowed into the head seas coming up from southeast. Winds kicked up for about an hour around 800 to 900 and we had white water splashing for awhile. Slowed progress down to make a more comfortable ride.
About 900 the winds began to shift and filled in the southwestern and western directions. That part was the forecast and it was better since we had land limiting fetch to our west. Made our turn at the three red buoys about 3 or 4 miles east of Northport. Straight shot in to a well protected marina.
Smoke from fires is pretty thick today in the marina. Often makes it hazy but today it is a strong campfire smell as well.
Couple days hanging here in Northport. Gonna change out reverse gear oil. Wife doing laundry. We will catch some beers before dinner and browse a couple restaurants.
I know. Iknow....tough life !